Connect to TiDB with DBeaver

TiDB is a MySQL-compatible database, and DBeaver Community is a free cross-platform database tool for developers, database administrators, analysts, and everyone working with data.

In this tutorial, you can learn how to connect to your TiDB cluster using DBeaver Community.

Note

This tutorial is compatible with TiDB Serverless, TiDB Dedicated, and TiDB Self-Hosted.

Prerequisites

To complete this tutorial, you need:

• DBeaver Community 23.0.3 or higher.
• A TiDB cluster.

If you don’t have a TiDB cluster, you can create one as follows:

• (Recommended) Follow Creating a TiDB Serverless cluster to create your own TiDB Cloud cluster.
• Follow Deploy a local test TiDB cluster or Deploy a production TiDB cluster to create a local cluster.

If you don’t have a TiDB cluster, you can create one as follows:

• (Recommended) Follow Creating a TiDB Serverless cluster to create your own TiDB Cloud cluster.
• Follow Deploy a local test TiDB cluster or Deploy a production TiDB cluster to create a local cluster.

Connect to TiDB

Connect to your TiDB cluster depending on the TiDB deployment option you’ve selected.

• TiDB Serverless
• TiDB Dedicated
• TiDB Self-Hosted

1. Navigate to the Clusters page, and then click the name of your target cluster to go to its overview page.

2. Click Connect in the upper-right corner. A connection dialog is displayed.

3. Ensure the configurations in the connection dialog match your operating environment.

   • Endpoint Type is set to Public
   • Branch is set to main
   • Connect With is set to DBeaver
   • Operating System matches your environment.

4. Click Generate Password to create a random password.

   

   Tip

   If you have created a password before, you can either use the original password or click Reset Password to generate a new one.

5. Launch DBeaver and click New Database Connection in the upper-left corner. In the Connect to a database dialog, select TiDB from the list, and then click Next.

   

6. Copy the connection string from the TiDB Cloud connection dialog. In DBeaver, select URL for Connect by and paste the connection string into the URL field.

7. In the Authentication (Database Native) section, enter your Username and Password. An example is as follows:

   

8. Click Test Connection to validate the connection to the TiDB Serverless cluster.

   If the Download driver files dialog is displayed, click Download to get the driver files.

   

   If the connection test is successful, the Connection test dialog is displayed as follows. Click OK to close it.

   

9. Click Finish to save the connection configuration.

10. Navigate to the Clusters page, and then click the name of your target cluster to go to its overview page.

11. Click Connect in the upper-right corner. A connection dialog is displayed.

12. Click Allow Access from Anywhere, and then click Download CA cert to download the CA certificate.

    For more details about how to obtain the connection string, refer to TiDB Dedicated standard connection.

13. Launch DBeaver and click New Database Connection in the upper-left corner. In the Connect to a database dialog, select TiDB from the list, and then click Next.

    

14. Copy and paste the appropriate connection string into the DBeaver connection panel. The mappings between DBeaver fields and TiDB Dedicated connection string are as follows:

    DBeaver field	TiDB Dedicated connection string
    Server Host	{host}
    Port	{port}
    Username	{user}
    Password	{password}

    An example is as follows:

    

15. Click Test Connection to validate the connection to the TiDB Dedicated cluster.

    If the Download driver files dialog is displayed, click Download to get the driver files.

    

    If the connection test is successful, the Connection test dialog is displayed as follows. Click OK to close it.

    

16. Click Finish to save the connection configuration.

17. Launch DBeaver and click New Database Connection in the upper-left corner. In the Connect to a database dialog, select TiDB from the list, and then click Next.

    

18. Configure the following connection parameters:

    • Server Host: The IP address or domain name of your TiDB Self-Hosted cluster.
    • Port: The port number of your TiDB Self-Hosted cluster.
    • Username: The username to use to connect to your TiDB Self-Hosted cluster.
    • Password: The password of the username.

    An example is as follows:

    

19. Click Test Connection to validate the connection to the TiDB Self-Hosted cluster.

    If the Download driver files dialog is displayed, click Download to get the driver files.

    

    If the connection test is successful, the Connection test dialog is displayed as follows. Click OK to close it.

    

20. Click Finish to save the connection configuration.

Next steps

• Learn more usage of DBeaver from the documentation of DBeaver.
• Learn the best practices for TiDB application development with the chapters in the Developer guide, such as Insert data, Update data, Delete data, Single table reading, Transactions, and SQL performance optimization.
• Learn through the professional TiDB developer courses and earn TiDB certifications after passing the exam.

Need help?

Ask questions on the Discord, or create a support ticket.